AGBU Internship Program Opens More Doors for Students

Interns Complete Another Successful Summer in New York and Yerevan

Another season of the AGBU Summer Internship Program has come to an end, creating more professional development opportunities for AGBU interns. This month, New York Summer Internship Program (NYSIP) participant Narek Tovmasyan joins the staff of Direxion Funds. The firm is just one of the many top companies that AGBU partners with for NYSIP as well as the Yerevan Summer Internship Program (YSIP).

While Tovmasyan begins his job in the finance sector, his NYSIP and YSIP peers will return to school with new knowledge gained through weeks of hands-on work experience. This year, a combined 64 interns from countries as diverse as Canada, France, Lebanon, Russia, Armenia and Turkey participated in the program. From June to August, they worked alongside industry leaders in organizations such as the American Bar Association, Deutsche Bank, the UNDP, NYU Medical Center, Armenia’s Ministry of Diaspora, and the marketing firm Mirrorball. In each office, with the help of their supervisors, they developed new skills and networked with potential employers.

Amidst today’s challenging job market, such opportunities are invaluable. As Tovmasyan remarked, “The support I received from NYSIP was apparent from the beginning. They placed me with a host institution that usually does not take on interns, and put me in direct touch with hiring managers. In such a competitive field, just landing an interview is tough, and I could not have had this opportunity without AGBU.” 

Tovmasyan isn’t the only AGBU intern to use his summer placement to build his resume. A native of Syria and NYSIP 2011 alum, Hovan Agopian is one of the hundreds who have gained valuable work experience during the program—and who are giving back. By the time Agopian finished his internship with the financial services company AXA-Advisors, he had received a job offer. In June 2012, after completing his degree, he already had a position waiting for him. It was a chance for him to advance professionally and to help other young Armenians; this year he became a NYSIP supervisor, mentoring an intern who hopes to follow in his footsteps. “I was able to teach my intern about the industry, and helped put him on his career path, just as my supervisor did for me,” Agopian described. “I also saw that the quality of students that NYSIP attracts is impeccable, and I was so pleased that my intern, like everyone in NYSIP, came with the eagerness to learn as much as possible.”

Glowing reviews of this year’s interns came from all of the program’s supervisors both in New York and Yerevan. Serob Khachatryan, the Country Director of the Children of Armenia Fund (COAF), praised U.S. student Ani Djirdjirian, commenting, “In a very short period Ani gave our kids values that are both important and necessary: inspiration, hope, confidence and friendship. I am counting on her returning to Armenia soon because our children need role models like her.” For Djirdjirian, who accompanied COAF’s child psychologists every day to Armenia’s rural schools, and for all the YSIP interns, the program offered much more than an internship—it was an opportunity to connect with each other and the country.

As each of the YSIP interns reported, living in Yerevan and touring the country reinforced their sense of identity as they created lasting memories. YSIP offers a complete cultural immersion experience, and the group kept busy taking language classes with AGBU’s Armenian Virtual College, as well as cooking classes, where they learned to make dolma and gata. Visiting historic landmarks such as the Ghazanchetsots Cathedral, hiking up Mount Aragats, and attending the Armenian Olympics were just some of the summer highlights.

On an excursion to Nagorno-Karabakh, they also saw the great progress the region is making, and during the annual supervisor’s reception, they had the chance to speak directly with the United States Ambassador to Armenia, John A. Heffern, about Armenia’s relations with Karabakh.

These activities allowed the diasporan students to better understand Armenia’s rich history and bright future, leaving each certain that they would one day return. As YSIP and former NYSIP intern, Peter Kechichian of Melbourne, Australia, summarized, “I am not sure in which direction my life and career will take me, however YSIP has helped ensure that they will one day lead back to Armenia, and that’s the greatest gift of all.

In New York, the interns connected with their historical roots through conversations with renowned Armenian authors. Michael Bobelian presented his book, Children of Armenia: A Forgotten Genocide and the Century-long Struggle for Justice, while Margaret Ajemian Ahnert read from her bestseller, The Knock at the Door: A Mother's Survival of the Armenian Genocide. It is a story that her granddaughter, NYSIP participant Sara Price, knows well. Ahnert, seeing firsthand the program’s positive impact on Sara and the NYSIP group, made a generous donation of $5,000 to support the internship program.

In addition to offering professional development opportunities, the AGBU Summer Internship Program places a strong focus on community service. In 2013, keeping with NYSIP tradition, the interns visited the Armenian Home for the Aged in Queens for “Sunshine for Seniors,” a talent show that they perform for the residents. The activity is organized by the AGBU Young Professionals of Greater New York, which led a summer-long mentorship program for NYSIP participants and hosted a mixer to fundraise for the program.

The AGBU Summer Internship Program was founded in New York in 1987 and quickly established itself as a premier program for international Armenian students. Its success prompted an expansion to Yerevan in 2007 and Moscow in 2010. In 2003, AGBU also began operating a parallel program in France, which serves students from the French University of Armenia throughout the school year. To date, the program has connected hundreds of diasporan peers who have risen to the tops of their fields.

Applications are now being accepted for NYSIP 2014, and the deadline is November 1, 2013. To learn more, please visit www.agbu-internship.org or email nysip@agbu.org.